AUTUMN COLORS CREEPING IN: The Classroom Office Building, affectionally dubbed “COB” when it opened in the early 1990s, was renamed Thomas Building in 1996 in honor of retired Penn State president Joab Thomas. In fall, the brick façade blends with the leaves and fruit of nearby honey locust trees in layers of seasonal hues.
EVERYDAY PEOPLE
Shamak Agarwal had a quick rise to Instagram fame, but he was famous before he went viral. Read the full profile by Amy Strauss Downey '04 Lib.
CLUB HOPPING
Students Teaching Students
Founded: 2020
Current membership: Varies by semester
Mission: To provide students a unique, innovative, and memorable supplement to their current courses.
This student organization puts students in the role of instructor and allows their student peers to experience fresh and innovative types of courses. Students draft a rough syllabus and a topic for their course, then refine them with the assistance of a faculty adviser. Once their course receives approval, student instructors receive additional training from the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence. Instructors teach on a volunteer basis. There are three course offerings for the fall 2025 semester ranging from one to three credits. Past offerings have explored topics from analyzing hip-hop to navigating your 20s. “I think that it’s really a next-level experience for students, because it’s much different than just being a teaching assistant,” says program director Lisa Wang. “You are really the center voice of this course.”
WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?
Q: Who painted the mural under Willard Building?
A: A wall mural inspired by Native American art pieces in a tunnel on the west side of Willard was largely a mystery to the Penn State community until 2017, when pharmacology and toxicology student Steven McAninch ’19 Agr posted a picture of it to Atlas Obscura, a travel website that allows users to publish information about lesser-known places. A few years later, in 2023, James Engel ’24 Lib, a reporter for the Daily Collegian, did some digging with some help from Penn State Special Collections and discovered that the initials “MPF” in the bottom right corner of the mural stood for Mary Pat Ford ’83 A&A. Ford was one of several students in professor Yar Chomicky’s art education class who started the mural as part of a group project, and one of only two who saw it through to its completion in the summer of 1982. (Chomicky, who died in 1992, was the creator of four murals that are now on permanent exhibit in the Mifflin County Historic Courthouse.) Ford, who recently retired after a 40-year career of teaching art at Pennsauken High School in New Jersey, expressed some initial disappointment that part of the mural has since been covered by electrical equipment, but she is pleased to see it’s still standing, unlike some of the other class projects from that era. “I think it’s delightful that it’s still there,” says Ford, who received an A for the class. “I guess we used good paint.”
Got a campus mystery you want solved? Email us at heypennstater@psu.edu.
REMINISCING
What's your favorite tailgating memory?
“My favorite tailgating memory was the Blue-White Game two years ago. It was pouring and everyone was completely soaked, but it didn’t matter! Everyone was out and making the best of it.”
Ainsley O’Mara ’25 Com
“My friends and I were invited onto a converted school bus which was decked out for Penn State tailgates. Lots of dancing, the hot dogs were great, and I’m still very grateful to the alumni that welcomed us without even knowing who we were!”
Cameron Herbst ’16 Sci
“The Alabama game in 2011 led to me meeting one of my future groomsmen.”
Kyle Martin ’10 IST
“We decided to paint lion paws on fans’ faces as a fundraiser for the University Choir. In 1985, this required a bit of ingenuity, as it took us forever to find blue stage makeup. I remember a few games where we managed to gross over $1,000, adding nicely to the choir’s budget.”
Bill Hinko ’87 Lib
“Loading up their motor home, my parents always brought enough to feed my roommates and friends. We’d get up to the lot, have a big breakfast, then load up on leftovers. We ate like royalty throughout the week!”
Jamie Higgins Shaull ’03 Edu
Illustrations by Joel Kimmel.
THEN & NOW
Campus Weather Service
Penn State is home to the nation’s largest and oldest student-run weather forecasting organization, and it’s come a long way since launching in 1972. Above, Paul Heppner ’82 EMS delivers a weather report in the campus weather service studio in the early 1980s, while Fred Gadomski ’83 EMS works the camera. Below, Gavin Sandel ’25 EMS delivers a full-color forecast in March 2025.
COMMON WEALTH
Highlights from four Commonwealth campuses.
BEHREND
The Nese College of Nursing is extending its second-degree option to the Behrend campus. The 16-month, full-time BSN option, designed for individuals who hold a non-nursing bachelor’s degree, has been approved by the Pennsylvania State Board of Nursing and is set to launch in the fall semester of 2026. After completing their coursework, graduates will be eligible to sit for the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) and upon licensure, begin new careers as registered nurses.
ABINGTON
Health humanities majors Kazi Morshed and Jiovani Santiago earned an award for the most innovative presentation at the Greater Philadelphia Asian Studies Consortium (GPASC) annual undergraduate research conference. The students created a virtual reality tour from the raw videos and images Pierce Salguero, professor of health humanities and history, captured at historical sites in China including Shamian Island and the Muslim Quarter at Xi’an. Attendees of the annual conference viewed the presentation through VR headsets.
HERSHEY
Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center appointed Angela Sonon to senior vice president and chief operating officer and Valerie Ritter to vice president and chief nursing officer, both permanent roles following their service in interim capacities. Sonon will oversee the daily operations of Lancaster Medical Center. She joined Lancaster Medical Center in July 2022 before its official opening in October 2022, serving as senior director of quality and medical affairs before stepping into the interim chief operating officer role. Ritter previously served as the nursing director for the emergency department at Pottstown Hospital, where she led initiatives to improve patient care and streamline department operations.
LEHIGH VALLEY & HARRISBURG
Pedro Robles, assistant teaching professor of cybersecurity analytics and operations at Penn State Lehigh Valley, and Daniel J. Mallinson, associate professor of public policy and administration at Penn State Harrisburg, received the Best Research Article award by the American Society for Public Administration’s (ASPA) Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management (SIAM) for their paper on autonomous vehicles (AVs). The article addresses the subject of policy learning and diffusion as they relate to autonomous vehicles and concludes that policy learning—not competition among states—is the primary driver of early AV policy adoption.
THE BIG 3
Penn State offers more than 11,000 undergraduate courses each year. Here are a few “class” superlatives:
726: Seats in Thomas 100, the largest classroom at University Park
326: Sections of ENGL 15 for fall 2025, the most of any course
10,154: Distance in miles from University Park to Melbourne, Australia, the farthest class from Pennsylvania
Illustrations by Joel Kimmel.
